The young nation of South Sudan has chosen English as its official language but after decades of civil war, the widespread learning of English presents a big challenge for a country brought up speaking a form of Arabic.I knew there might be problems as soon as I arrived at Juba International airport - and was asked to fill in my own visa form, as the immigration officer could not write English. The colourful banners and billboards hung out to celebrate South Sudan's independence back in July, and still adorning the streets now, are all in English. As are the names...

South Sudan's civil war began on the night of December 15, 2013, when a firefight erupted between soldiers serving in the presidential garrison in the capital city, Juba. "Between" is an important word. The battle pitted soldiers from the Dinka tribe (largest in South Sudan) against soldiers in the Nuer tribe (second largest). The government, led by president Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and the rebels, led by Riek Machar, a Nuer, agreed to their first ceasefire on December 31. Fire and combat, however, never ceased. Instead, it spread. Every ceasefire and peace declaration since has failed to hold. Poor communication...

White South Africans are in grave danger; there may be a solution. Things are very bad in South Africa. When the scourge of apartheid was finally smashed to pieces in 1994, the country seemed to have a bright future ahead of it. Eight years later, in 2002, 60 percent of South Africans said life had been better under apartheid. Hard to believe â€” but that's how bad things were in 2002. And now they're even worse. When apartheid ended, the life expectancy in South Africa was 64, the same as in Turkey and Russia. Now it's 56, the same as...

Ahmed ‘Clock Kid’ Mohamed Visits the Butcher of Darfur By Ian Tuttle — October 16, 2015 Is anyone saving Darfur these days? You might remember Darfur. Just a few years ago, it was all the rage. There were t-shirts, postcards, and tote bags. There was an Amnesty International compilation album with songs by U2, Jackson Browne, and the Black Eyed Peas. There were baby onesies. Celebrities were all about saving Darfur. In April 2006, thousands of people gathered on the National Mall to urge the Bush administration to intervene. Among the speakers was George Clooney, who a few months later...

The Public Order Court in Khartoum North this morning dealt with the case of one of the ten Christian women students charged with wearing indecent dress. A group of 12 women students were detained by the Public Order Police on Thursday evening when they were leaving the Baptist church in El Izba, Khartoum North, because of their “scandalous outfits”. The young women, wearing trousers and skirts, were transferred to a police station, where two of them were acquitted on Friday. The agents of the Public Order Police had reconsidered their opinion about their clothes. The ten others were charged with...

Russia came in for harsh criticism last week when state-owned jet producer MiG delivered 12 MiG-29 planes to Sudan. Amnesty International suggested that the jets could be used against civilians in Sudan's western region of Darfur, where attacks against indigenous black tribes by the government-backed Arab janjaweed militia over the last 15 months have left at least 30,000 people dead, forced villagers into refugee camps and left some 2 million people without sufficient food and medicine. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton blasted MiG for selling modern weapons to a government the United States considers a sponsor of international terrorism....

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, the world’s only sitting leader wanted on genocide charges, is expected to win a landslide victory in elections this week, extending a 25-year reign in which the country has endured multiple insurgencies and the secession of the oil-rich south. Despite Sudan’s seemingly perpetual unrest, al-Bashir survived the 2011 Arab Spring. His ruling party dominates the parliament and local councils, and the massive security apparatus has left the once-vibrant opposition a husk of its former self. Al-Bashir has ruled the country since taking power in a 1989 coup, but billboards across Khartoum showing him in traditional robes...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow on Monday where the issue of Middle East peace talks will be raised, Russian authorities announced Thursday. “The two leaders will hold talks concerning key aspects of Russian-Palestinian relations and their future, with particular attention on the trade, economy and humanitarian sectors,” the Kremlin said in a statement according to AFP. There will also be “an exchange of ideas on the process of Israeli-Palestinian talks and other problematic regional situations,” the statement continued, adding that North Africa would also be on the agenda. …

Anemic, confused, totally inept responses by her administration to today's human rights tragedies across the globe. A sad commentary, is it not? Samantha Power made her name on both her hard-hitting, Pulitzer-prize winning book, “A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” and her no holds-barred lectures and articles decrying the U.S. Government’s lax responses to crimes against humanity and genocide. In the aforementioned book, Power excoriated a host of presidential administrations for what she deemed to be their “toleration of unspeakable atrocities, often committed in clear view.” Proudly, she welcomed the sobriquet—and took on the mantle of—“the...

The joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region said Monday an initial investigation has turned up no evidence of a claimed mass rape in a village there, but a U.N. envoy said there was a heavy military presence during the visit which could have affected the findings. […] Allegations first surfaced earlier this month of a mass rape of 200 women in Tabit and UNAMID said it intends to conduct further investigations. […] (Australia’s U.N. Ambassador Gary) Quinlan said (the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Hawa) Bangura raised questions about whether “a wall of...

The chief editor of a Sudanese newspaper was attacked and beaten by an angry mob late Saturday just days after a televised appearance in which he called for “normalized ties” with Israel. AFP is reporting that Osman Mirghani, editor in chief of Sudan’s Al-Tayar daily newspaper, was taken to Al-Zaytouna Hospital after the mob stormed the paper’s offices Saturday night. …

Looks like the move to the US embassy in Khartoum has paid off for Meriam Ibrahim, the young Christian mother sentenced to death for her faith in Sudan. Now out of the reach of Sudanese security forces, Reuters reports that Sudan has now begun negotiations to get Ibrahim and her family out of the country: Sudanese authorities and U.S. officials in Khartoum are negotiating to allow a Sudanese woman, who married an American and was recently spared the death penalty for converting to Christianity, to leave Sudan, sources close to the case said. â€¦â€śThere are talks going on currently...

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just completed a series of landmark reports that chronicle an update to the current state of consensus science on climate change. Its conclusion: On our current path, climate change could pose an irreversible, existential risk to civilization as we know it, but we can still fix it if we decide to work together. But in addition to the call for cooperation, the reports also shared an alarming new trend: Climate change is already destabilizing nations and leading to wars. That finding was highlighted in last week's premiere of Showtime's climate change docu-drama...

UNMISS said in a statement that "the armed mob forced entry into the site and opened fire on the internally displaced persons sheltering inside the base". Its forces returned fire -- first firing warning shots and then taking part in a ferocious gun battle -- before the fighters retreated, it added. The civilians had fled into the base weeks ago amid brutal ethnic massacres in the world's newest nation. Information Minister Michael Makuei said that a "huge number" of gunmen had come seeking revenge for the rebel capture of the oil town of Bentiu two days ago hoping to kill...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending military aircraft and more special operations forces to Uganda to assist in the search for fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony. A senior U.S. military official confirmed Monday that the U.S. is sending at least four CV-22 Osprey aircraft about about 150 more Air Force special operations members and airmen to assist local forces in their long-running battle against Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. The official confirmed the plans, first reported by The Washington Post, on condition of anonymity without authorization to discuss them on the record.

<p>President Obama is committing more military resources, including aircraft and special operations forces, to the hunt for notorious African warlord Joseph Kony.</p>
<p>Early Monday, the White House confirmed a Washington Post report that the U.S. was sending "associated support personnel," and a "limited number" of CV-22 Osprey aircraft to assist local forces in their long-running battle against Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. Obama sent about 100 U.S. troops to help the African forces in 2011.</p>

South Sudan: Khartoum’s Aid to Reik Machar’s Tribal ViolenceBy South Sudan News StaffJuba — December 24 … During the weekend of 20-22 December, the Republic of South Sudan underwent a political crisis, an attempted coup and emerged to the next phase of putting down what's become known as the Machar Revolt. The African think-tank, The Fashoda Institute, has published a current analysis of the South Sudan’s crisis. “Juba entered the weekend having lost control over most of Jonglei State. However, this loss of control was the result of an uneasy cease-fire and tenuous cooperation between the predominantly Nuer ex-SPLA forces...

<p>US aircraft came under fire on Saturday on a mission to evacuate Americans from spiralling conflict in South Sudan and four US military service members were wounded.</p>
<p>Nearly a week of fighting threatens to drag the world's newest country into an ethnic civil war just two years after it won independence from Sudan with strong support from successive US administrations.</p>

Rebel gunfire hit a U.S. military aircraft trying to evacuate American citizens caught in a remote region of South Sudan that on Saturday became a battle ground between the country's military and renegade troops, officials said. Four U.S. service members were wounded. The U.S. military aircraft were heading to Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei and scene of some of the nation's worst violence over the last week. One American service member was reported to be in critical condition.

LONDON — The United Nations said Friday that it had sent helicopters to rescue personnel from a base in South Sudan that came under lethal attack amid a worsening political crisis, and President Obama warned that South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, “stands at the precipice.” The number of civilians seeking refuge in the United Nations’ other outposts there exceeds 30,000, and diplomats expressed fears about the potential for a civil war. Britain, which began evacuating its citizens on Thursday, said Friday that it would send a second airplane to Juba, the capital. “We strongly advise all British nationals in...

Two US military aircraft have been fired at during an evacuation mission in South Sudan, wounding two service personnel. One is said to be in a critical condition, and it is thought at least one of the planes was damaged. South Sudan has blamed the attack on renegade troops. Officials said the aircraft were heading to Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei and the scene of some of the country's worst violence in the past week. After being fired at the planes turned around and headed to Kampala in Uganda. From there the wounded service personnel were flown...

South Sudan’s fugitive vice-president has denied mounting a coup after three days of fighting in the capital of the world’s newest countryclaimed at least 400 lives. Riek Machar, who was formally sacked as vice-president in July, said the clashes were caused by a “misunderstanding” and no attempt had been made to overthrow President Salva Kiir. The clashes began on Sunday night when military bases in the capital, Juba, were attacked. On Monday, Mr Kiir appeared in military uniform and said that his government had foiled a coup. The president has been locked in a power struggle with Mr Machar, reflecting...

President Kiir Declares Curfew In Juba As Attempted Coup FailsBy Joe Odaby South Sudan NewsJuba — December 16 … The President of the Republic of South Sudan H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit has imposed a curfew over Juba following heavy gunfire that started early Saturday, December 15, in the city and its suburbs. The situation though is under control; sporadic gunfire still continues to be heard in some parts of the capital. The curfew, the President says takes immediate effect. In a press briefing in the early hours of the day, President Kiir called for calm among the citizens while assuring...

Seventy global Holocaust and genocide experts in a letter asked U.S. President Bararck Obama to arrest Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir for his role in the Darfur genocide if he arrives at the United Nations General Assebly in New York City this week. The International Criminal Court indicted Bashir in 2009. The letter calling for his arrest was organized by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington, D.C. Signatories include Prof. David S. Wyman, author of "The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945," Prof. Yehuda Bauer, senior historian at Israel s Yad Vashem...

When a US delegate once confronted a Chinese diplomat about Beijing's uncompromising support for Pakistan, the Chinese reportedly responded with a heavily-loaded sarcastic remark: "Pakistan is our Israel". But judging by China's unrelenting support for some of its allies, including North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe and Sudan, its protective arm around these countries is no different from the US and Western political embrace of Israel - right or wrong. ..."China is trying to reassert its political clout at the United Nations as a counterweight to its defensive stand on currency and trade issues." The New York Times newspaper said on Tuesday...

You don’t wait for war to buy fighter jets, says Gen. Museveni One of the new Russian-made jet fighters prepares for a demonstration take-off during President Museveni’s tour. PHOTO BY MARTIN SSEBUYIRA By Martin Ssebuyira (email the author) Entebbe The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, yesterday conceded calls by opposition for the government to give priority to infrastructure and healthcare ahead of military hardware are plausible but said defence cannot wait for war to purchase equipment. Mr Museveni, who was inspecting the new planes at the airbase in Entebbe, said the delivery of Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters...

The group, the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), said it attacked the facility, run by a Chinese-led consortium in the Defra oilfield. Jem said its action was a message to China to stop helping the Sudanese government with their war in Darfur.

The forceful projection of China's hard and soft power in recent months marks a stunning departure from the foreign policy axioms of late patriarch Deng Xiaoping. Deng, who anointed President Hu Jintao as the "core" of the Fourth Generation leadership, noted shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre that China must "keep a low profile and never take the lead" in global affairs. Particularly in reference to the United States, Deng pointed out that China should "seek [opportunities for] cooperation and avoid confrontation." This advice was largely followed by Third-Generation leaders, such as ex-president Jiang Zemin and ex-premier Zhou Rongji, both...

The creeping reach of Chinese arms SINGAPORE, June 13 — Is China returning as a major player in the international arms market? According to data released by the United States Congressional Research Service, Beijing signed arms exports agreements worth US$3.8 billion (RM13.3 billion) in 2007 – its highest sales figures in more than a decade. In recent years, Chinese overseas arms sales have averaged more than US$2 billion a year, considerably higher than during the 1990s, when Beijing averaged less than US$1 billion a year in arms exports. In fact, China has not enjoyed sales this strong since the late...

At the Centenaire market in Dakar, Chinese wholesalers line the street on both sides, renting warehouses for $1,000 a month, selling everything in bulk from plastic toys to space-age looking DVD players. One buyer, Fatou Gueye, says Senegalese are poor and they love these new shops, because, she says finally she can afford something. Here she says, she can buy for children and adults, for her whole family, almost everything they need. One man who has just turned himself from chronically unemployed to retailer is also very pleased. He is buying bras, cameras, shoes, belt buckles, pots, pans, colorful pens...

Feb. 3, 2005, 7:30AM Putin signs order to send Russian troops to Sudan Associated Press MOSCOW - Putin has signed a resolution that would have Russian troops join a proposed U.N. peacekeeping operation in Sudan, the Kremlin said today. The resolution calls for Russia to send Interior Ministry units. The ministry has both police- and military-type units, and there was no immediate specification on what types of forces would be sent. Sudan's government and rebels in the south signed a peace deal on Jan. 9 to end the African nation's long-running civil war, setting up a national power-sharing administration with...

'Full text' of China-Russia Joint Statement on 21st century world order By BBC Jul 2, 2005, 19:00 GMT "Full text" of the China-Russia Joint Statement regarding the international order of the 21st century, released in Moscow on 1 July, carried by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) Moscow, 1 July: Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Putin signed the Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation Regarding the International Order of the 21st Century in Moscow on 1 July. The full text of the joint statement follows: Joint Statement of the...

Whatever the fate of Citic Pacific Ltd.'s contemplated bid for PSINet Inc., a distressed U.S. telecom company, the attempt signals a new level of interest by major Chinese companies in making off-shore acquisitions. &quot;The Chinese are thinking big; China has capital and China is growing,&quot; says Michael Carr, head of investment banking for Goldman Sachs & Co. in Hong Kong. &quot;We talk to quite a few broad-based Chinese companies with an interest in acquiring companies overseas,&quot; adds Dennis Wai, a banker with J.P. Morgan Chase in Hong Kong. &quot;They are looking everywhere now: Southeast Asia, Europe and the U.S.&quot; To ...

Cotton, wheat, rice, and now corn. If revised Chinese import estimates by the US Grain Council are even remotely correct, look for corn prices of $6.80 a bushel at last check to jump by at least 15% in a very short amount of time. As the FT reports, "Corn prices – and with them, the price of meat – are set to explode if the latest import estimates from China are correct. The US Grain Council, the industry body, said late on Thursday that it has received information pointing to Chinese imports as high as 9m tonnes in 2011-12, up...

Western media exaggerate China's limited arms sale to Sudan (Xinhua) Updated: 2008-02-22 22:34 LONDON - A senior Chinese diplomat has said that western media have exaggerated China's limited arms sale to Sudan. Liu Guijin, special representative of the Chinese government on the Darfur issue, told a news conference at the Chinese embassy in London on Thursday that "China has adopted a high degree of restraint in its arms sale to developing countries, including Sudan. It is very limited in numbers." According to relevant international statistics, among a total of seven countries exporting arms to Sudan, China only accounted for 8...

Africa discovers dark side of Chinese master By Colin Freeman in Chambishi, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:05am GMT 04/02/2007 The smooth red carpet rolled out across Africa last week for Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, did not quite reach the gates of Zambia's Chambishi copper mine. A young street child outside a Chinese-run business centre His plans to make an official visit yesterday to the plant, which re-opened under Chinese state ownership eight years ago, fell victim to a hitch he rarely encounters at home: the not-so-grateful worker. Tipped off that miners were threatening protests about poor pay and conditions,...

UNITED NATIONS – China and Russia blocked the Security Council from demanding an end to political repression and human rights violations in military-ruled Myanmar, rejecting a resolution proposed by the United States. The vote was 9-3 in favor of the resolution, with South Africa joining China and Russia in the opposition. Indonesia, Qatar and the Republic of Congo abstained. While they were in the minority, China and Russia were able to kill the resolution because they have veto power as permanent members of the council. The two argued that the U.N.'s most powerful body was not the proper forum for...

China’s Military Gets Expeditionary Uncategorized | China April 15, 2011 By Gabe Collins The PLA's expeditionary capabilities will grow significantly in coming years. What are the greater implications? This is the fifth entry in our series on understanding Asia-Pacific sea power. China’s military is in the nascent stages of becoming an expeditionary force. The country’s anti-piracy deployment to the Gulf of Aden and the use of naval and air assets to support the evacuation of Chinese citizens from Libya in February and March 2011 have shown real capability in this arena. What is an expeditionary power? The US Department of...

Pakistan marketing its new JF-17 fighter jet, developed with China LONDON — Pakistan is making the rounds of Arab allies talking about its new fighter-jet. Officials said Pakistan has briefed such countries as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Sudan on the new fighter, jointly developed with China. Under an agreement with Beijing, a majority of the JF-17 could be produced and assembled in Pakistan. "The airplane would reach close to the capabilities of existing U.S. and Russian aircraft, but for about half the price," an official said. Pakistani Defense Secretary Shahid Siddiq said eight countries have expressed...

A continent that withstood European colonialism welcomes Chinese conquest. By Peter Hitchens It is the optimism of Africa that is so heartbreaking. In the alleyways of townships where human waste dribbles among the potholes, in mud villages where tiny homes cluster round anthills, the same scene replays. Out of dim hovels come scrubbed children in dazzlingly clean uniforms, hurrying to disciplined schools where they hope to better themselves. On Sundays, platoons of beautifully dressed, joyous women make their way proudly to full churches, carrying themselves like royalty. In the great cities, a thousand tiny businesses compete good-naturedly for scanty trade....

China expanding African arms sales By Andrei Chang Hong Kong, China — Increasing quantities of China-made military equipment have been finding their way to Africa, traded for oil, mineral resources and even fishing rights. Zambia has used its copper resources to pay China in a number of military deals, for instance, and Kenya has been negotiating with China to trade fishing rights for arms. Among the most popular Chinese military exports to Africa are the J-7, K-8 and Y-12 aircraft, which are relatively inexpensive and easy to operate. China sees those countries already armed with the K-8 and J-7 aircraft...

By J.R. Nyquist JRNyquist@aol.com The terrible events of last week were anticipated by the work of security expert Yossef Bodansky. Readers are advised to study Bodansky's book, Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America. Using Bodansky's basic outline, recent news stories, the excellent research of John K. Cooley's Unholy Wars and Samir al-Khalil's Republic of Fear, I attempt to describe the forces at work behind the destruction of the World Trade Center. In October, 1998, Sudan's Islamist ideologue, Sheikh Hassan al-Turabi, sent a delegation of terrorist commanders to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Saddam's defiance of the ...

PLA Revises the Art of War By J. Michael Waller Should U.S. financiers whose trading adversely affects Chinese “red-chip” companies be assassinated? China’s People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, is discussing the concept. Should Beijing covertly fund political-influence operations in the United States? A new PLA book openly asks the question. Facing a potentially huge nuclear-weapons buildup as well as an even bigger high-tech conventional-arms race to reach parity with the United States and Russia, members of the echelon of senior colonels who will be among tomorrow’s PLA flag officers are looking beyond the nuclear age to a new and ...

&nbsp; The Sudan-Iraq-Afghanistan Alliance:&nbsp;and the Russian connectionAmerica's enemies unveiled &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The terrible events of last week were anticipated by the work of security expert Yossef Bodansky.&nbsp; Readers are advised to study Bodansky's book, Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America.&nbsp; Using Bodansky's basic outline, recent news stories, the excellent research of John K. Cooley's Unholy Wars and Samir al-Khalil's Republic of Fear, I attempt to describe the forces at work behind the destruction of the World Trade Center.&nbsp;&nbsp; In October, 1998, Sudan's Islamist ideologue, Sheikh Hassan al-Turabi, sent a delegation of terrorist commanders to Saddam Hussein in ...

CATIC offers JF-17 to Africa, Middle East China is looking to Africa and the Middle East to buy its JF-17 Thunder fighter jet, and anticipates countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, Venezuela, Turkey and Sri Lanka ordering 300 aircraft over the next five years. A spokesman from China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) told Flightglobal that, "In the next five years, CATIC intends to sell up to 300 JF-17s to several countries in Africa and the Middle East". "CATIC sales and customer support teams are highly motivated and CATIC is looking forward to making the...

When it learned of the obscenities of the Holocaust, the world said, "Never again." It lied. Ten years ago, 800,000 people died in Rwanda while the world looked the other way. Oh, the after-the-bloody-fact posturing and the offering of new resolve. All of it, again, lies. History is repeating itself, this time with Khartoum-backed Arab militias butchering and raping black Sudanese. By conservative estimates, 10,000 to 30,000 have already died. The projected death toll is 300,000 to 1 million. Already 2 million are suffering from starvation and sickness. What the government-backed militias began, microbes may finish. The situation is indescribable....

MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted to the Federation Council upper house of parliament the proposal to use a unit of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sudan, the presidential press service reported on Wednesday. The letter, specifically, says that the United Nations secretary-general requested Russia’s sending a military unit of its Armed Forces to Sudan to take part in the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sudan. The UN operation is carried out in Sudan in accordance with the resolution of the UN Security Council, which envisages the...

Starting in the late 1990s, China's presence on the African continent experienced a phenomenal expansion. Far more profound changes, however, have been underway and may only become apparent in the next decade. These changes are likely to transform the regional economic landscape of the African continent in ways never seen before. Chinese experts apparently believe that Africa is entering an era of relative stability and that the time to explore its untapped resources has arrived [1]. Chinese policymakers see in Africa possible solutions to some of China's most pressing problems, for instance, Beijing's need to secure access to energy resources...

ChinaÂ’s naval presence on the global stage is expanding. While counter-piracy and escort operations in the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea have significantly contributed to the Chinese navy's growing profile, foreign port visits by its naval vessels to the Gulf region are emerging as an important element in Chinese naval strategy. ChinaÂ’s overseas naval presence is an important measure of its great power status, and port visits are an effective means of projecting naval power. The Chinese Navy's growing naval activism was recently highlighted by an unprecedented visit by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) at Jeddah Port in...